David Byrne, European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection on US beef imports to the European Union, said: "Following yesterday's announcement of a case of BSE being detected in the US state of Washington, I can confirm that the European Union already has in place a number of protective measures to ensure that bovine material at a risk of carrying BSE is not imported into the EU. These measures, in place since October 1999, are a result of a scientific risk assessment procedure, which identified the US as a country at risk of BSE outbreak. Such risks assessments have been carried out for a number of major exporters and have been shown to be correct in predicting the existence of BSE in countries that previously had no native cases, i.e. Canada and Japan." (see also IP/01/490)